In auger-type snow plows, an auger housing is mounted to a vehicle body frame including travel device, such that the auger housing can be raised and lowered and made to roll. The auger housing includes an auger. An auger snow plow can scrape up snow by means of a front auger while traveling forward, and can disperse the scraped up snow far away by means of a blower via a shooter.
A snow plow including an auger employs a system for varying the height of the auger housing in accordance with the conditions of the snow plowing work. It is more efficient to move the snow plow when the bottom surface of the auger housing has been raised. It is more efficient to plow snow when the bottom surface of the auger housing has been lowered. The height of the auger housing is also often varied according to unevenness in the road surface when snow is plowed.
It is highly inconvenient for a worker to make these variations to the height of the auger housing through manual labor. To alleviate the burden on the worker, the bottom surface of the auger housing can be raised and lowered with a power assist. This feature is disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-Open Publication No. 63-136012 (JP-U S63-136012) and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2007-032218 (JP-A 2007-032218).
In the snow plow disclosed in JP-U S63-136012, the auger housing angle is used to control an angle of inclination detector provided to the auger housing to detect the angle of the auger housing relative to the direction of gravity.
In the snow plow disclosed in JP-A 2007-032218, the raised/lowered angle and the rolling angle of the auger housing are controlled by using a height position sensor to detect the raised/lowered position of the auger housing and using a rolling position sensor to detect the tilt position of the auger housing control.
When an auger snow plow is doing snow plowing work, it is common for the travel device to be temporarily put in reverse and then again be put in forward. When the travel device is put in reverse, the auger housing is preferably automatically raised to a certain height so as not to catch on the road surface. When the travel device is then again put in forward, the auger housing may be automatically lowered to the tilt angle immediately before the travel device was put in reverse, in which case considerations relating to work efficiency make it preferable to be able to stop the auger housing quickly and precisely at the original tilt angle.
A demand thus exists for a feature whereby the auger housing can be stopped quickly and precisely in the pre-reversing tilt angle position.